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Fingerstyle Guitar on Electric Guitar - Some Questions

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GeoffTarka	Fingerstyle Guitar on Electric Guitar - Some Questions	Lead	[-]
Posts: 1 (05/06/08 07:27:46) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : fingerstyle, electric, guitar, shred, distortion, palm, mute, muting Hi, I have recently tried out fingerstyle guitar playing and have fallen in love with it. I have come across an issue that I'm not sure about. I love playing the electric guitar as well, (mostly with distortion), and I was wondering if someone could give some suggeestions on how I could mute unused strings. I generally play with my thumb either anchored on the low E string or floating, and when doing fast passages use IMIM, and so was lost on how I could mute the string. Would I use my fret hand in this case? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for your help, Geoff Tarka
Paul Kucharski		#1	[-]
Posts: 989 (05/06/08 15:08:41) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Using electrics to play fingerstyle introduces a real challenge for effective muting to say the least. There is so much sustain you really do have to keep in under control to get a good sound. But then I probably don't have tell you that since you probably know that. In any event, muting strings after playing them is really a pretty challenging thing to do and takes a VERY SLOW practice pace. There is no rule as to whether you should use the right or left hand to do the muting because I think which is best depends on the situation. Anytime you can mute using your left hand frees your right hand from having to come back down on the string after you've played it. But I think in general, most muting will end up being a case of plucking the string with the right hand and then putting that finger back down on the string to mute it. All of course while playing the next string. So it takes real patience and slow practice just to get use to the mechanism. And you need to get use to playing other strings with other fingers while muting the unplayed strings. Not altogether a natural thing. The best instruction video I've seen on this is by Kelly Joe Phelps slide guitar video at Homespun tapes. You may want to check it out.
GeoffTarka		#2	[-]
Posts: 2 (05/06/08 19:17:13) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Hey thanks for much for your help! I hadn't even thought about using my right hand fingers, I'll try it out and see how it works for me . Oh and thanks for the video suggestion, I'll definitely check that out! -Geoff
arquipablo		#3	[-]
Posts: 2 (08/11/08 11:16:33) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I have the same question....i really like the finger style....but it a little harder in electric, but I like more than acoustic..., I just try to look and learn from chet....he really sounds equal in the electric or acoustic,....jsut a question, is useful use 0.10 or 0.11 string instead 0.9...?...if you have some tips please tell us... Thanks from Chile!
Howard M Emerson	Try spidering for muting!	#4	[-]
Posts: 38 (08/14/08 06:32:53) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Hi Geoff, Muting is something that some people learn intuitively through cause and effect: They hear an errant string ringing that they don't want, so they find a way to stop it! Some people are only concentrating on playing the notes they're trying to play, and they can't listen at the same time to anything else that's going on, so there are errant strings ringing. They only notice it when they record themselves and they wonder why there's a lack of clarity to the phrase they're attempting. I know this stuff, first hand, because I'm self taught, really fussy (and play bottleneck which REALLY tests your muting skills), and I teach students who either get it quickly, or battle with it all the time! You can certainly use your fretting hand to mute unwanted strings by 'overreaching' a little bit so that the tip touches an adjacent string, etc, or use fingers that are not busy at the moment to touch them. The side of the fretting hand (down from the pinky) is a very versatile muting device, known primarily for getting the old Chet Atkins electric tone. Anyone who tells you they use the heel of their palm probably isn't......... My primary muting comes from 'spidering'. I don't know if anyone else has called it by that term, but that's the way I've always described it to my students. It basically amounts to grabbing onto unwanted string with the extra finger tips of the right hand, and it's especially noticeable when I play bottleneck. If you watch this video starting around the 4:00 mark, you'll clearly see what I'm talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6GhoxlfU5U&feature=related I'm not a fast player at all, and when I do single string runs it's usually with thumb and index. It sounds like you're more from the classical end of things, yes? What it comes down to is this: I tell my students that if it does not sound good to their ears, then they're paying attention. Now what are they going to do about it?? That is cause and effect! If they don't hear it, that's another problem altogether. Do whatever it takes to get the tone you need and DO NOT pay attention to 'proper technique'. Hope some of this helps you out. Regards, Howard http://www.howardemerson.com/

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